July 10th 2013, Standing Bear

Today we had a short window of time to get out and actually fish but since the weather was so nice we couldn’t pass up the opportunity. So instead of heading out of town, we chose Standing Bear which is about 5 minutes from where I live. Also Scott had been there earlier this week with some success using a top water frog.

We started fishing along the south side of the lake by the boat ramp and quickly noticed how many other people were on the lake. There were approximately 15 kayaks or canoes on the lake, I believe for a boy scouts event. Also about every 50-100ft on the shore line there was somebody with a set line. So we attempted to bounce around them for a little bit with little success.

We did also take into account that the bass would typically be in their summer patterns by now, so deep points might be a good option. That mixed in with the heat and the extremely clear water in the lake, we had to adjust our fishing methods. We threw about everything at them with only a few bites here and there but hadn’t pulled anything in yet. We tried fishing in the large cove on the south side and along the dam as well and were seeing a lot of schooling fish out in the open water but couldn’t convert that into any real strikes.

Finally as the sun started to set, the temperature dropped and the visibility got worse we started getting some strikes. I believe as a result of the conditions the bass were hanging out deeper and not feeding as much until the temperatures cooled and the traffic on the lake lessened. We ended up with a few good bites, a few fished hooked that got away and caught one 14 inch bass near the end of the night (as pictured below).

So we were a little disappointed we didn’t catch more fish but we did find them eventually and we had to fight a crowd of people to do it. It is a good place to go if you live in Omaha and want to get out for an hour or two some evening. But if I had the time, I would go further out of down just because of the traffic on the lake.

Overall Ranking: 3 Star

The fishing is somewhat slow and the fish are usually small. But it is nice when you can get to the lake in 10 minutes.